Restraining order sought against cop

Published 4:00 am, Monday, January 10, 2000

City Controller Ed Harrington, saying he has been "harassed and badgered" for five years by a sheriff's deputy who lives next door, has sought a restraining order against the man after finding a brick that was lobbed through his bedroom window.

Harrington's neighbor, William Setzler, has been in a disability fight with The City since the early 1990s, and has expressed frustration that Harrington hasn't helped him.

Setzler said he did not throw the brick and said he never harassed Harrington.

Harrington found the brick Dec. 27 and filed a police report. A judge will decide Friday whether to sign the restraining order, which would prevent Setzler and his roommate from crossing the property line with their bodies or an object.

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In an application for a restraining order filed by the city attorney's office, Harrington claimed Setzler "harassed and badgered" him for the past five years, trying to get the chief financial officer to intercede in his disability retirement claim.

Harrington also filed for a restraining order against Setzler's roommate, Allan Falk. The order

does not seek to prevent Falk or Setzler from coming and going from their

own home.

Falk said the request for a restraining order came "out of thin air."

"If the guy was being harassed, why didn't he just tell us?" he said.

Reached at his office, Harrington said he would have rather kept the disagreement out of court.

"On the other hand, I don't like a brick being thrown through my window," Harrington said. "I thought it was time to do something about it."

Setzler worked as a deputy for seven months, then injured his foot on Jan. 2, 1990, while kicking a malfunctioning metal gate at the County Jail. He applied for disability retirement the next year, claiming he was too injured to work.

Investigators videotaped Setzler in 1993, claiming he showed no sign of injury when he carried luggage to a cab on his way to a vacation in Greece.

The disability retirement claim was later denied.

Setzler has sued The City twice, claiming among other things that the videotape was substituted and altered.

The window was shattered between Dec. 23 and 27, while Harrington was away for the holidays. Harrington said in court papers he believes the brick came from Setzler and Falk's house.

'Possible loss of touch with reality'

Harrington said his bedroom window is in the back yard, less than 15 feet from Setzler and Falk's bedroom window. Harrington said his neighbors were the only ones who could have thrown

the brick, short of someone entering his back yard, which cannot be accessed from the street.

"Setzler and Falk have escalated their verbal attacks and intimidation into a physical threat," the petition for a restraining order states. "Their failure to appreciate Mr. Harrington's inability to affect Setzler's disability retirement application indicates a possible loss of touch with reality."

Setzler says he hasn't lost touch with reality - he's in a "Catch 22."

The city Retirement Board has denied his application for disability retirement. But when he sued last year to get his job and back pay, the judge threw the case out because the lawsuit over his retirement claim is still pending on appeal.

Harrington said in court papers that Setzler has approached him outside their homes several times over the past five years asking for help, but became increasingly agitated in the fall, when his most recent court case was dismissed.

On Sept. 30, Setzler sent Harrington a six-page letter, asserting that "the San Francisco City Attorney's office, the San Francisco Retirement Board and others have engaged in a series of fraudulent activities" to deny his disability retirement.

Deputy: Harrington uncooperative

The letter, which Setzler copied and sent to several media organizations and U.S. Sen. Dianne Feinstein, accused Harrington of refusing to meet with him or return his calls.

"Ed, considering I am a San Francisco deputy sheriff and your next-door neighbor for 13 years,

Harrington wrote back a week later, claiming he discussed the claim with several top officials, but didn't get cooperation from Setzler.

"There is no reason that all of these City officials and your own union would have been unable to help with your case if it was as straightforward and righteous as you make it appear," Harrington wrote. &lt;